Draw What You Love

Current mood board, really feeling Catwoman ever since I watched Batman Returns a few weeks back. Loveloveloved Michelle Pfeiffer. On a related note, I finally saw Beetlejuice, and I was equally smitten. As a kid I saw bits of it and never understood it, but having seen it in its entirety, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Tim Burton knows how to style a movie.

The cover of my new sketch pad. Could NOT resist the pink shiny paper.

Katy Perry, Felix the Cat, Gala Darling, and leopard hearts.

Betsey inspired collage, Betsey Johnson, Eloise, Dala horse.

Dala-corn (dala horse+unicorn), bunting and Nikki Minaj.

My "theme" or idea (theme sounds too grand) behind this newest sketch pad is to Draw What I Love. I was doing the 30 Day Project and I liked doing the sketches, but at a certain point (day ten to be exact: favorite candy) I decided, I just didn't care enough about the prompts to draw them. And I was never sure how to approach them, quick sketchs or fully resolved images? Quick sketches didn't feel long enough, but full images seemed like too much for topics that I wasn't completely invested in. I know myself enough to know that I need to draw something everyday if I'm to improve. BUT I am also a terrible procrastinator and spend waaaay too much time trawling the internet. Then it dawned on me, if I'm going to fritter away time absorbing beautiful images on the internet, why not try drawing them? Turn a bad habit into a good one. And that has turned into doing portraits of women who inspire me along with other random doodles.

What do you love to draw?

Batter Witch

I've had a hankering for zucchini bread for a a long while now. Last summer, on the way back from the Cape I stopped at a farmer's market and had the BEST zucchini bread ever. The baker had used pineapple to sweeten the batter, and I remember the base being crunchy and caramelized. Oh my! I didn't attempt to find that recipe, but I did find this from an adorable blog, Smitten Kitchen.

Can I tell you how amazing the batter tasted? A perfect blend of salt and sweet; I wanted to eat it raw. I did not. The aroma upon baking was lovely, perfect for warming an airconditioned house. Once baked, I didn't notice the salt/sweet as much, and the zucchini flavor was pretty subtle (the golden raisins I added might have upstaged the zucchini) but that didn't stop me from gobbling down two, warm. Mmmm. Especially good with Bigelow's Vanilla and Caramel tea, my new obsession.

What's cooking in your kitchen?

Taking a Break

It turns out there is a downside to spending so much time with my shiny, new laptop. Specifically, my eyes have become dry, red, and irritated. Therefore I won't be posting until my eyes rehydrate. The recovery plan is to:

-Get out more (I've been inside too much. And it's summer! I should be outside!)
-Limit online browsing to an hour (A friend describes the internet as a rabbit hole, and I fall into it waaaay to easily.)
-Take eye breaks during long bouts of computer aided drawing
-Use eye drops for contacts (in four years of wearing contacts, I rarely use drops. I'm even worse at carrying my lens case around)
-Wear glasses when using the computer for long periods
-Get a paper sketch pad (I've gone almost a month without one!!!)

Sounds good to me! How do you deal with staring at a screen for hours?

30 Day Drawing Challenge- Day 9

Favorite TV show-Pushing Daisies: I actually don't watch a lot of TV, so I watched this series on DVD rather than when it frist aired. I wish they had kept it going.

PS I would totally marry Lee Pace.

30 Day Drawing Challenge- Day 8

Favorite Animated Character- Did you even have to ask?

Also, Connecticon is tomorrow! Hooray for nerds!

More Mermaids

Phew, only a few more pages and this dummy book will be complete! Next stage will be editing then creating the final images. If anyone want to leave feedback feel free to comment below.

Blogging over this last week has been really useful and motivating for me. Usually I just let afternoons pass, only thinking about how I should be drawing. But blogging makes me feel as if I've made some tangible progress; it's like being published without being published. I've been thinking a lot about art and motivation and the conclusion I keep coming back to is that, even if what I create isn't perfect, its important to at least do something. The only way to improve at anything is to make mistakes and to not be discouraged by them, but to keep going.

For more on this topic check out: Timmy and Sarah Cast, Nextness: Patti Smith.


Images are property of Amanda Anderson. Please ask for permission to use.

30 Day Drawing Challenge- Day 7

Favorite Movie- Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola <3 The movie earned a lot of criticism, but I remember feeling moved the first time I saw it. There was a quiet desperation to the film, like that thing they say about swans, looking effortless but paddling furiously to keep afloat. Trying out a style like Cucumber Quest.